sometimes it comes in handy

having multiple obsessions er, hobbies, like quilting. easy to pick a matching thread for marina's buttons when one can choose from the handy folding thread caddy.

i seem to have an inordinate fondness for colors 852 and 864, as i have two of each.


picked a color to blend with calluna number 891.

words cannot express how much i love marina, it's like a comfy sweatshirt that goes with everything. the colors are very hard to capture in a photo, it is inbetween these two.

only change i made was; instead of binding off the steek stitches for the neck, i kept them live. then when it was time to pick up the collar, the steek stitches went back on the needle. that way you can knit the collar in the round, and the steek goes all the way to the top of the neck edge. i think i picked up that tip from wendy a long time ago.

before i washed marina, the buttonbands were basted with a zigzag, and a running stitch along both sides, didn't want it to gap while on the woolly board.

started knitting kerry from black water abbey with 3 ply hebredian in golden plover from the stash. but now i'm thinkin', do i really want 7 inches of honeycomb around my hips?

perused the patterns on hand, maybe golden plover would rather be marilyn, sigil, a cable and lattice pullover, or the wrixlan jacket? maybe it would rather be little rivers no link, only cardiganized? or anne of cleves, it's original destination?

decisions, decisions. any thoughts gentle readers?

the girls could care less.

s is for

sandhill crane.
i knew something was up when my dogs were going crazy at the windows.
3 huge sandhill cranes in the the yard. man those things are loud, like turkeys on steroids!
down on the ranch, we have seen larger groups of them. when they take off and fly, it is positively prehistoric.
click on this link and you can hear their calls.
othello washington has a sandhill crane festival, who knew?















s is also for so close, and yet so far...

saturday sunset

didn't want to let another saturday go by.
sunset on lake serena.
marina update tomorrow.

me bad

and i was doing so well on my cruise around sleeve island...

haven't knit a stitch since saturday.

been too busy eating lunch here

and here


and today will be here. *

then back to the restaurant barren life of lake placid, florida. but not before i pick up a pizza and chicken wings to go from here.


ah well, i did manage to find buttons for marina, and kerry (two possibilities).

*so much for my excellent intentions of being svelte in time for rhinebeck.

papoose

marina is all seamed up, soon to be steeked. looks like a papoose to me.

3 needle bind off is my method of choice. alice recommends grafting in the pattern, meg swansen also prefers grafting, or the 3 needle bind off with the bind off on the public side.

but i like the stability of the 3 needle bind off, and i also like the way it looks. knitter's choice ;-)

julia put my feelings into words, only i am itching to start cables or lace, not socks. but i must persevere.........

my roses are blooming their fool heads off! i love these carefree beauty roses, they really live up to their name.

september 11

we will never forget.
i pray for those family members left behind.

mutants

too bad the m is over.

a clearer view of the mutant strain of fair isle stitches. see the nice cute plump light diamond in the top circle?
see the funny looking light diamond with the dark tic in the bottom circle? the one that doesn't match the other 3 diamonds surrounding it?
if the offending diamonds weren't part of a symetrical pattern, they wouldn't be so bad. as they are now, they mess up the cute plumpy lightness of the their sister diamonds.
like a nice fat beignet with a roach on it.
be gone satan!

marina has reached that point of interminable boredom, where you just want the big ole body to be knit, so you can start the bands, or even the sleeves.

this huge mutant mosquito was killed on my chest at 4:50 a.m.

can you say good morning sunshine?

r is for

ru-ro.











see anything wrong in these photos?

well, i'm nothing if not consistent ;-)

it's bloody row 27 on marina's chart. i made the same mistake on the first 2 full pattern repeats. i also made the mistake on the 3rd pattern repeat, but caught myself. that's when i looked below. ru-ro.

am currently ruminating my options.

a. leave it alone not a chance in hell.

b. duplicate stitch

c. surgery similar to the donegal changing color solution scroll down to nov.12th, only this time more of a pain in the rump, as i would have to change 2 colors....

further reflection required...

remember the photo of our poor 2 dead pine trees?

yesterday they were cut down. then our friend bobby hauled them away on a huge flatbead to a saw mill in zolfo springs to be made into boards. i am very happy the wood will be used.

bobby and his brother jack are 5th generation floridian. their family, the scarboroughs, have been here in central florida since before the war of northern aggression. his grandfather never paid more than 25 cents an acre for any of his land. can you imagine!

bobby is a huge cattle rancher and farmer, and has been incredibly helpful to tom on our ranch. i love listening to him tell tales from when he was a little boy. his family drove cattle across central florida over to sanibel island, then into the gulf of mexico onto boats waiting to take the cattle to cuba. at the time, they would camp on the beach, and there was not one single building on all sanibel island. Incredible!

saturday morning sky for sandy.

q is for

quahog.

ivory quahog.



and quahog chowder.

my favorite quahog chowder is at the atlantic cafe on nantucket. on a cold windy rainy day, the a.c.'s chowder is heavenly.

now that i've recovered from the moth madness, marina is on the needles. luckily for me, a friend in australia decided she wasn't going to ever knit her marina, so she is mine all mine! thanks beryl :-)



the colors are hard to photograph. marina reminds me of a pendleton blanket.

madaket waits at the window every afternoon for dd to get home from school. isn't she sweet?

i love the way she lays with her legs out like an otter :-)

shotsie in her normal position,laying the bed, on top of the pillows. what a life!

saturday sky for sandy. sorry, but blogger won't let me upload the bloody photo.

thanks for all the kind wing-of-the-moth words! manise, ann, lene, and judy, i can't figure out a way to email a thanks, so thanks! dee and chris, i'm glad you won :-)